EclectEcon

Whenever a physician or other health employee asks if I'm currently taking any medications, I reply,

Yes, I take about ten different placebos each morning... a multiple vitamin, vitamin C, Vitamin D, ... etc.

Now I can take a real placebo each morning [h/t to Brian Ferguson]:

Over-the-Counter Placebo
03 JUN 2008 – A new drug is arriving in the US that promises safe relief from everything from a wide range of childhood (and adult) conditions. It is called Obecalp – placebo backwards. Obecalp fills a previously empty market niche: you cannot normally buy placebo medication at the pharmacy, but many parents wish to help their children for imagined ailments without giving them real drugs as placebo. The pills look and taste like actual medicine but just contain dextrose. Since there is no active ingredient and they do not treat any particular condition it can be marketed as a dietary supplement.

Not everyone is thrilled, though, with this marketing concept. The article continues,

Experts are somewhat divided over marketing placebo to minors. One issue is the deception involved, which has led the the AMA to come down negatively on placebo. But given that parents often believe (based on quite a lot of evidence) that placebo does work, that parents regularly lie to their children and that the alternative may be them instead giving ibuprofen or antibiotics rather than something guaranteed innocuous, the deception issue may be outweighed by concerns of overprescription. The real problem may be that parents are bad at acting as if it was a real medication. Yet studies have found that even when patients know they are getting placebo they get better. [emphasis added]

Another reason to avoid placebo pills is that they condition children to see pills as a relief, perhaps making them more vulnerable to future overmedication or quackery. Yet giving other kinds of placebos like herbal teas may have the same effect. What most crying kids really need is a "kiss it and make it better" concern from their parents. Yet today's kids may actually consider being given a pill a similar symbol of affection. Ms. Buettner, the creator of Obecalp, claims that "as a parent you'll know when Obecalp is necessary." Leaving the non-medical interventions in the hands of parents seems to be a better choice than asking the medical professions to deal with them.

As the writer of that item later wondered, how long will it be until generic obecalp competes for shelf space with the branded product?

My friend BenS suffers from what he terms "idiopathic pseudo hypochondriasis". Obecalp sounds like just the product for him.